Attacks on Literacy – How the Lessons by Ida B. Wells Relate to Today
American journalist and civil rights activist Ida B. Wells dedicated her life to spreading the truth about what happened in her present reality and society. Now more than ever, the lessons she taught are important to remember.
Some citizens believe that the current administration and certain media outlets are attacking literacy and history. This attack includes actively barring people from learning history and comprehending what’s happened in the past and currently.
“Identity Months are Dead” President Trump declared on January 31, regarding months such as Black History Month, Women’s History, and Pride Month. It took pioneers like Wells to combat such forces and provide people with the information that antagonists try so hard to censor.
In her book, ‘The Light of Truth – Writings of an Anti-Lynching Crusader,’ Wells stated “The way to right wrongs is to turn the light of truth upon them.”
With the truth being challenged at every turn in today’s world, standing up for the truth is a responsibility we must all uphold. Every person reaches a point in their life where a certain situation or injustice radicalizes them and sets them on a path of truth and spreading awareness. Wells reached hers early on.
Ida B. Wells’ Contributions
Wells was born six months before the Emancipation Proclamation, in Holly Spring, Mississippi on July 16, 1862. She was the oldest daughter of James and Lizzie Wells. At the young age of 16, Ida lost both of her parents. To keep her siblings together, she convinced a nearby school administrator that she was 18 years old, and landed a teaching job.
Before Rosa Parks, there was Ida. In 1884, she refused to give up her first-class train seat on principle before the conductor physically removed her from it. She then sued the railroad company and won her case, receiving a $500 settlement. The Tennessee Supreme Court overturning this decision drove Ida to pursue her passion for writing.
Under the pen name ‘Iola,’ she went on to become an owner of two publications “The Memphis Free Speech and Headlight Free Speech” that focuses on issues of politics and race. Ida’s tipping point resulted from the unlawful lynching of her friend Thomas Moss. Here she began her timeless writings of anti-lynching. Due to her publications, Wells faced threats on her life, causing her to remain in the northern United States.
Between 1896 and 1913, Wells founded and participated in many revolutionary ventures including the NAACP and the Alpha Suffrage Club in Chicago. Advocating for reform, Wells brought her ant-lynching campaign to President McKinley at the White House in 1898.
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History Repeats Itself
Wells still inspires future journalists with her works. In 2020, she posthumously received a Pulitzer Prize for “outstanding and courageous reporting on horrific and vicious violence against African Americans during the era of lynching”.
As her work still makes waves, the discriminatory ideologies she fought against continue to run rampant almost 200 years after her time. It begs the question, “How are we still fighting the same fight, dealing with the same hatred?” This realization can bring a sense of defeat and hopelessness.
“If this work can contribute in any way toward proving this, and at the same time arouse the conscience of the American people to a demand for justice to every citizen, and punishment by law for the lawless, I shall feel I have done my race a service.” (Wells, 1892)
It’s up to us as a society to carry her legacy and not allow the current administration to rewrite and bury history. Threats to remove the Department of Education linger over our nation. Doing the work involves staying educated, remaining truthful, and recording accurate accounts of what’s happening in society. And, it involves not allowing the administration or its followers to intimidate those from speaking the truth.
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